A conversation between two of the most distinguished rabbis in Israel indicates scholars of the Torah see unmistakable signs of the coming of the Messiah. What’s more, in the Messianic era, Christians will become a source of Torah learning, as believers in Jesus Christ rediscover the source of their beliefs in both Judaism and the Torah.
The conversation took place between Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch and Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, both of whom are regarded as leading experts in the Torah.
During the conversation, Rabbi Kanievsky reportedly predicted the imminent coming of the Messiah, before the end of the year after the Shemitah. The Shemitah is a seven-year cycle which seems to correlate with dramatic events in history, as explained by messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn in “The Mystery of the Shemitah.”
Rabbi Sternbuch contested the timing, and said before the Messiah will come, the Christians and the Arabs will “come to Israel.” Rabbi Kanievsky added “all the non-fruit bearing trees in Israel will bear fruit,” meaning Christians will be learning Torah. Thus, the breach between Christians and Jews will be healed, as both communities turn to the study of God’s Word.
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Christians obviously believe the Messiah has already come in the form of Jesus Christ and what is being discussed is not His “arrival,” but His return. Nonetheless, several Christian leaders who have been prominent in the growing movement to reconnect Christianity with its Judaic roots welcomed the comments by these prominent Torah scholars.
Jonathan Cahn, the leader of the largest Messianic congregation in the world and the bestselling author of several books, “The Harbinger” and “The Mystery of the Shemitah,” welcomed the rabbis’ comments as another sign the original breach between Judaism and Christianity is being healed.
“We are seeing things that no other generation has seen, since the book of Acts,” said Cahn.
He said these include:
- Churches celebrating Passover
- Believers calling Messiah by his true Hebrew name “Yeshua”
- Israeli flags being flown over Christian gatherings
- Believers from South America to India, Africa, and China celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles
- Israeli leaders speaking at Christian events
- Shofars sounding Christian gatherings and church services
- Believers in Jesus lighting Menorahs, partaking in the Sabbath, even worshiping in Hebrew
- Israel coming to the realization that the most faithful supporters they have in the world, and the greatest friends are the followers of Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus.
Cahn argues this isn’t some dramatic reformation of the faith, but rather a return to its original form.
“Most of this would have been unthinkable not long ago,” he told WND. “In fact, for two thousand years of church history, it has largely been absent. The irony is it all began this way. Christianity in its original and most natural form was (and is) totally Jewish. So what we’re seeing is a restoration.”
Cahn agreed with the rabbis this dramatic shift constituted a sign the end times were coming soon.
“There is a mystery that at the end of the age, things return to the form they had at the beginning,” he said. “This includes the reappearance of Israel and Jerusalem – and the now the coming together of the church and Israel, Christians and the Jewish people.
“Every weekend we see people of all nations, all backgrounds, all colors coming together at my own place of worship, the Jerusalem Center, to worship the God of Israel and to grow deeper in the Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus. It’s an end-time phenomenon … and it’s exciting!”
Mark Biltz, the discoverer of the “Blood Moons” phenomenon and the author of the upcoming “God’s Day Timer: The Believer’s Guide to Divine Appointments,” said the acceptance by all the nations of the wisdom of the Torah and the divine significance of Hebrew are critical for Christians to understand, especially in the end times.
“The Bible declares that during Messianic times the knowledge of the Torah and the acknowledgment of the God of Israel will completely cover the Earth,” Biltz told WND. “The Torah is often likened to water as both descend from heaven. We read in Habakkuk 2:14, ‘For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.’ Hebrew is a pure language and the original language at creation. Everything is being restored much like a reversal of the Tower of Babel where all nations will know Hebrew in Messianic times.”
Bill Cloud, who heads Shoreshim Ministries and is the author of “Esau Rising: Ancient Adversaries and the War for America’s Soul,” is excited by what he sees as an embrace of what he’s been teaching for years.
“This is the Talmudic side of what I taught years ago in a message called ‘the fullness of the Gentiles,'” Cloud told WND. “It’s about the grafting in of the wild olive branch and how that provokes the unfruitful tree to bear. Believers in Messiah who are also embracing the Torah as a guideline for how to live is most definitely a sign of his return. It’s part of the restoration of all things that is spoken of in Matthew 17 and Acts 2.”
Cloud says there is a Scriptural precedent for ethnic non-Jews who became part of the Kingdom of Israel.
“It’s connected to the idea that Elijah the Tishbite was not ethnically Israeli but of the toshavim – ‘resident aliens’ – who joined themselves to Israel (1 Kings 17). According to the Messiah it is Elijah – or shall I say those represented by Elijah (the Wildbranch) – who restore all things (Matthew 17).”
Cloud says the consequences of this kind of teaching spreading among Jews could be earth-shattering.
“This is exciting news because it demonstrates how many Christians and many Jews are recognizing that Messiah’s coming is near and how that portends a reconciliation between the two,” he said. “In my view, as Christians awaken to what they have been blind to – an obligation to keep the Torah – it will provoke our Jewish friends to see what they have been blind to – the identity of the Messiah.”
The film that is transforming hearts around the world. Discover “The Harbinger Man” and the works of Jonathan Cahn. Available now at the WND Superstore.
Carl Gallups, a pastor and the author of several books including “Be Thou Prepared,” sees these reports as yet another indication Jewish experts in Torah are moving closer to what he calls “the ultimate truth concerning Messiah.”
“He indeed is coming (again), and He will most certainly deliver His people and pour out His blessings on Israel,” the pastor predicted. “And there will most assuredly be a time of ‘Jacob’s Trouble,’ before Yeshua’s arrival – a cataclysmic event in which the Jewish people will see the hand of God alone as their deliverance from what would appear to the world as Israel’s certain destruction.
“While I do not require the musings of Jewish rabbis, who to this date still reject Yeshua as Messiah, to strengthen my faith in the return of Messiah, I am still thrilled that these two prominent leaders are speaking so boldly, and recognizing the biblically prophetic times in which we are living. I truly believe that the Holy Spirit is in the process of plowing up the previously hard soil of unbelief and preparing the way for the soon-coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ.”
Gallups compared the reports of the rabbis’ discussion to his investigation of Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri in his book and documentary, “The Rabbi Who Found Messiah.”
“Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri, modern Israel’s most venerated rabbi, declared in his own handwriting that the name of the long-awaited Messiah is none other than Yeshua,” claimed Gallups. “This fact is attested to in reliably documented sources, but also through the testimony of almost a dozen of Kaduri’s own Yeshiva students, (who sat under Kaduri’s teaching on Messiah) who are now outspoken believers in Yeshua as Messiah and Lord. And now, we have two more prominent living rabbis stirring up the fires of Messianic expectancy among the Jewish population!”
Gallups also said it is important for Christians to study Torah, though he cautioned the ultimate “bearing of fruit of which the Word of God is actually speaking” manifests in faith in Jesus as the Messiah. However, Gallups expressed confidence the end times are coming soon because the world is in “prophetic times.”
The author of “Final Warning” laid out a few specifics.
“Without setting dates, it is still safe to say that the world is very close to witnessing the return of Yeshua, just as He promised,” he told WND. “Israel is back in the land. Jerusalem is in the possession of Israel. The Ezekiel 38 nations, led largely by Islam, are coalescing right before our eyes. Russia and China are in the Middle East colluding, along with Persia (Iran), and their military troops are planted firmly in Syria. The ancient Ottoman Empire, with its center at Turkey, is on the verge of resurrection led by a man threating to execute thousands of his detractors.”
Gallups also spoke of the importance of the Shemitah, as outlined by Jonathan Cahn as a focal point for the fulfillment of prophecy.
Gallups urged believers around the world to be prepared not just physically but spiritually for what he believes is the imminent fulfillment of extraordinary prophecies.
“We see these amazing 2,000-year-old prophecies rapidly converging upon on our unique generation,” he exclaimed. “And in the midst of it all, some of the most prominent leaders of the Jewish faith are declaring the Messiah is coming soon, an end times prophecy fulfillment in itself. It’s time to be ready. The ‘lion of prophecy’ is roaring.”
The film that is transforming hearts around the world. Discover “The Harbinger Man” and the works of Jonathan Cahn. Available now at the WND Superstore.